Google Agent Development Kit (ADK)
Google's multi-language, code-first AI agent framework
Overview
Google's open-source framework for building, evaluating, and deploying AI agents and multi-agent systems, with SDKs for Python, Go, Java, TypeScript, and Kotlin. Free and Apache-2.0 licensed, optimized for Gemini and Vertex AI but usable with other model providers.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 12 Jul 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
What you can produce with Google Agent Development Kit (ADK)
- Python, Go, Java, TypeScript and Kotlin SDKs
- Graph-based multi-agent workflow runtime
- Built-in ADK Web debugging interface
- Agent-to-agent (A2A) task API
- Vertex AI Agent Engine deployment
- Gemini Live API multimodal support
- 30+ third-party tool integrations (GitHub, Stripe, Notion, etc.)
- Apache 2.0 open source license
ASEAN Perspective
Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) in Southeast Asia
ASEAN-region availability and pricing notes coming soon. Drop the editorial team a note via /contact/ if you can supply local context (Singapore/Malaysia/Indonesia/Thailand/Vietnam).
ADK is Google's most technically serious agent framework, and it shows in the surface area: stable SDKs for Python, Go, Java, TypeScript and Kotlin, a built-in ADK Web debugger, and a Python repo that has passed 20,000 GitHub stars. The graph-based workflow model gives engineers explicit control over multi-agent orchestration rather than leaving it to prompt magic.
The catch is scope. This is a full framework, not a five-minute wrapper, and the learning curve is real — TypeScript, Go and Java users get thinner documentation and fewer working samples than Python users. Built-in grounding and Search tools are Gemini-only, so cross-model teams lose some functionality.
Best fit: teams already on Google Cloud who want production multi-agent systems and are willing to invest in the framework properly, not a quick prototype tool.
What people say
ADK's GitHub numbers tell the adoption story: the Python repo alone has passed 20,000 stars and 3,500+ forks as of June 2026, with production-ready Go and Java ports and a stable Apache-2.0 v1.x line — even as Google works through a 2.0 beta with APIs that may still shift before it locks.
InfoWorld's Martin Heller, reviewing the framework hands-on, called ADK's design more coherent than Amazon Bedrock AgentCore's and singled out the built-in ADK Web interface as a real debugging advantage over rival frameworks. His main complaint was documentation imbalance: Python examples are abundant, but TypeScript, Go, and Java developers get comparatively thin sample coverage. He also flagged that the customer-service sample agent ships with mocked tool responses rather than working API calls, so developers have to wire up real integrations themselves before the demo does anything useful.
Review aggregator Awesome Agents scores ADK 7.6/10, calling out its multi-agent architecture as the strongest among major frameworks and pointing to genuine multimodal support via the Gemini Live API as a differentiator competitors haven't matched. The tradeoff both reviews agree on: built-in grounding and Google Search tools only work with Gemini models, so teams mixing in Claude or GPT lose some of the batteries-included functionality.
On the ecosystem side, Google announced ADK integrations with more than 30 platforms in early 2026 — GitHub, GitLab, Asana, Linear, Notion, MongoDB, Pinecone, Stripe, PayPal, ElevenLabs and Hugging Face among them — which matters for teams building agents that need to actually touch existing business tools rather than just chat.
Pricing is straightforward because there isn't any: ADK itself is free and open source under Apache 2.0. The costs show up downstream, in standard Google Cloud usage rates if you deploy through Vertex AI Agent Engine, Cloud Run, or GKE. For teams not on GCP, that's a reason to price out the alternative before committing — the framework is portable in theory but built with Google's own deployment surface in mind.
Summary of public user & expert reviews, compiled by RECATOOLS.
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Google Agent Development Kit (ADK)'s official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
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